


you persecute in fear

by CycloneRachel



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, Family Drama, Gen, One Shot, Supergirl (TV 2015) Season 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-16
Updated: 2020-12-16
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:09:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,052
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28102203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CycloneRachel/pseuds/CycloneRachel
Summary: On the eve of his return to the twenty-first century, Brainy visits his mother.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 11





	you persecute in fear

**Author's Note:**

> hello friends!
> 
> so, this one was inspired by an idea from my friend (? I don't know if we're really friends) Namesake, aka ovenproofowl and owl-with-a-pen on tumblr! She had a really interesting fic where Brainy circa season 5 visits his mom, and in the fic his mother mentions him visiting her several times in the past few years. So I just thought this could be one of those times, as I'd say it's important enough to be.
> 
> I hope it's okay!

He almost didn’t go through with it.

Querl could have just not gone there at all- it would’ve been so easy. He could have ignored her, let her stay in her prison cell without any intrusions from the outside world.

He could have let her rot there, allowing her to fall apart without ever knowing why.

But in the end, there was a part of him that still remembered the days before their family vacation- how she had smiled at him, and he had longed for her approval. His parents had always been distant from him, and he understood that... though once, he thought she could have been proud of him. She could’ve been someone he looked up to- but he knew now that such an idea was foolish.

Still, though, he went to speak with her.

~

“Hello, Mother.” he said.

He knew he was safe- he absently began twisting his Legion ring around his finger, the device that would send a signal to his friends if it were triggered by something that happened to him during this meeting. His forcefield belt was ready to be activated if necessary, and if he was not given enough time to activate it, he was confident he could defend himself.

She didn’t look up at him, at first. Fabala Dox still looked the same as when he’d seen her taken to the prison she now resided in- white hair that had once been cut precisely, now dirty and unkempt. Three bloodred inhibitors, in the same place that his were. She looked small in her prison uniform, in this cell... but when she raised her eyes to meet his, and he noticed once more the features that they shared, he felt as though he were trapped instead.

“And you call yourself a hero.” she said, instead of any attempt at a hello, like the other times. “Honored by the United Planets, saving lives all over multiple galaxies with the rest of your little Legion. But not once, in almost five years, do you think of visiting your dear mother?”

She locked her eyes on his, and smiled.

“Do you, Querl?”

Querl considered saying no. Of course not- there was a reason this was the last thing he’d decided on doing, before he left the thirty-first century. Soon, he’d be safe, and on the chance that his mother escaped from her prison, he would have Supergirl by his side to help him. There was no risk in this... but also, as he looked at her, no reward.

“If you had become familiar with my travels with the Legion since I joined them, you would know that I was busy, Mother.” he answered. “But I did consider it.”

“I’m sure.” she said dryly. “Why are you here now?”

“You can access our ancestral memories.” Querl answered, hands behind his back. “Learn it yourself.”

Fabala closed her eyes, and sat back against the cell wall. He could see the lights of her inhibitors flickering, her eyes moving behind her eyelids as she processed what she was experiencing through the perspective of the other currently living Brainiac.

(Something, along with an eventual rebooting process, that he hoped he wouldn’t go through for a long time- at least, that was his intention.)

Finally, her head slowly raised to meet him again, as the inhibitors stabilized.

“I see.” she said, smiling up at him. “I remember... _everything_.”

“If that is true,” she started, looking up at him curiously, as if studying him to find which piece she’d have to disrupt that would make him fall apart, “Then why tell me at all? If you truly hate me, would it not have been more logical to let me discover Vril’s scheme if or when I contracted such a plague myself? You could’ve neglected to come here, and your so-called conscience would be untarnished, especially if you discovered that I had died.”

Fabala watched him, surely noticing how he flinched, before continuing again- speaking as though she’d had an epiphany.

“Oh, but this isn’t about conscience at all, is it, my _darling_ boy? No, I understand now. You may say it is- you told your friends you wanted to see me, perhaps even said that it was your duty to inform me of the pandemic our kind is suffering. But, in practice, this is nothing more than gloating. You plan to go somewhere else- another galaxy, perhaps another place in time where Brainiac will not be able to find you, and only you will be safe... while the rest of us, your mother included, will be left to slowly die.”

Querl did his best to remain calm.

“You are... not incorrect.” he conceded. “However, the Legion is working on a cure.”

(He didn’t tell her of his plan to bring a certain twenty-first century human to the future, to help the Legion when he couldn’t- or, for that matter, that he would be taking that human’s place, helping Supergirl. It seemed like an invitation for her to break out of jail, especially at this time, and follow him… and that was the last thing he needed right then, even if he would be safer.)

“Of course you are.” his mother snapped. “And I assume, with you being in charge of its creation, that I will be one of the last to receive it?”

“I never said-“

“Don’t fight it, Querl.” Fabala said. “You may think yourself superior, but you are no better than any Coluan or artificial intelligence.”

“You consider me a coward.”

“I didn’t say that, you did.” She answered. “So you can ask yourself such a question.”

“I will.”

(He didn’t tell her that he already had, and the odds of said trait were inconclusive)

“That is all I needed to say.” Querl finished, before turning his back on his mother for what he hoped would be a long time.

And that was just it, wasn’t it? Hadn’t he hoped that this information would change his mother, make her reconsider how she’d treated him, persuade her to ask him if he could spare her too?

But Querl wasn’t in control of that. All he could do was send someone forward in time to make things right… especially since he was part of the reason why they were wrong in the first place.


End file.
